VIDEO: Michael Steele?s First 100 Days
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on May 9th, 2009 4:33 am by HL
VIDEO: Michael Steele?s First 100 Days
Tomorrow marks Michael Steele’s 100th day as chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). While many members of the GOP were hoping for a dynamic spokesman that could communicate conservative values to the American public, what they ended up getting was a gaffe machine. Since taking office, Steele has become most known for statements about […]
Tomorrow marks Michael Steele’s 100th day as chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). While many members of the GOP were hoping for a dynamic spokesman that could communicate conservative values to the American public, what they ended up getting was a gaffe machine.
Since taking office, Steele has become most known for statements about how the GOP needs to “uptick” its image with “everyone, including one-armed midgets“; how he likes to “wear my hat backwards, you know, because that’s how we roll in the Northeast”; and how he has “slum love” for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA). ThinkProgress’s Victor Zapanta has put together a video of the highlights. Watch it:
The RNC itself also continues to struggle under Steele’s leadership. In the Daily Beast today, ThinkProgress’s Amanda Terkel writes:
According to the latest FEC reports, the RNC had just over 100 people on its payroll in March compared to more than 200 people on payroll in March 2007 and nearly 260 in March 2005, both off-election years shortly after new chairmen took over. […]
Steele also has yet to purchase any voter-registration data, which can be key to expanding outreach and field operations. In contrast, when Mehlman took over at the RNC in 2005, he spent nearly $55,000 on voter information in his first two months in office. In 2007, then-Chairman Mike Duncan spent almost $14,000 on such data and files during the same period.
Roll Call also reported yesterday that the RNC is still trying to fill “top spots,” including that of finance director. At least one candidate has turned the job down, and the organization “had to hire a headhunter for a while to look for potential candidates for the job.”
Many Republicans have become discouraged by Steele’s first 100 days and are looking to marginalize him. Although the RNC outpaced the DNC in first-quarter fundraising, a Republican strategist told Terkel, “A lot of donors seem totally underwhelmed by Steele. Some donors are looking for another organization to donate to, and right now, for a lot of them, the [Republican Governors Association] looks like an ideal alternative.” Steele also recently agreed to sign a “secret pact agreeing to controls and restraints on how he spends hundreds of millions of dollars in party funds and contracts,” after media reports leaked about how he is spending precious RNC funds on redecorating his office.
Just remember: Although Steele’s first 100 days may seem like nothing short of a train wreck, there’s supposedly a “logic” behind all this madness. “It’s all strategic.”
What Did Pelosi Know About Torture And What Could She Have Done About It?
ABC News reported last night that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was “was briefed on the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002,” according to a documents prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The documents appear to contradict Pelosi’s previous claims that she […]
ABC News reported last night that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was “was briefed on the use of ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002,” according to a documents prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The documents appear to contradict Pelosi’s previous claims that she did not know that the Bush administration had employed the “enhanced interrogation techniques” authorized by the Office of Legal Counsel.
In a February 25 interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Pelosi explained what she knew about the Bush administration’s use of torture, saying that she had been briefed but was not told that the techniques had been used:
PELOSI: They did not brief us that these enhanced interrogations were taking place. They were talking about an array of interrogations that they might have at their disposal. … We were never told they were being used. … The inference to be drawn from what they told us was that these are things that we think could be legal. … But they never told us that they were being used.
Watch it:
Pelsoi’s spokesperson, Brendan Daly, reiterated this position yesterday, stating, “As this document shows, the speaker was briefed only once, in September 2002. The briefers described these techniques, said they were legal, but said that waterboarding had not been used.” But in a one-sentence description of the meeting, the CIA document states the Pelosi was given a “description of enhanced interrogation techniques” that were used on Abu Zubaydah. Based on Daly’s statement, it appears that Pelosi was in fact aware that at least some of the “enhanced techniques” — though not waterboarding — had been used.
That said, in a letter accompanying the new documents, CIA Director Leon Panetta explains that it is possible that the CIA’s description of the briefing is inaccurate. Panetta explains that its report is based on the “best recollections” of those in attendance and states that the Senate Intelligence Committee, to whom they sent the report, “will have to determine whether this information is an accurate summary of what actually happened”:
While it remains unclear what Pelosi knew and when she knew it, it should not be forgotten that Pelosi did not write the memos authorizing the use of torture or carry that torture out; the Bush administration did. Further, the CIA briefed Pelosi without staff, told her their practices were legal, and forbade her from discussing the meeting with colleagues. As such, Pelosi could not work to “outlaw the practices.” Marc Ambinder notes that the only way Pelosi could have registered her objections at that time was to “walk out of the briefing, telling those CIA officials who came that what she just heard did not constitute a formal briefing.” The result? The CIA would have simply tried to re-brief her at a later date, but the Bush administration would have continued to carry out torture anyways.
