Steele: Punishing senators who supported stimulus is ‘absolutely on the table.’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/04/steele-primary-retribution/

Steele: Punishing senators who supported stimulus is ‘absolutely on the table.’

Last month, RNC Chairman Michael Steele signaled his willingness to consider retribution against the three Republican senators who supported President Obama’s recovery plan by supporting primary challengers. He reaffirmed that pledge today on Laura Ingraham’s radio show, declaring such punishment is “absolutely on the table.”

INGRAHAM: Will you make good on that pledge that the RNC will not raise money and give money to Republicans who continue to put a stick in the eye of fiscal conservatism?

STEELE: As I said, that is something that is absolutely on the table for me. I’m not backing down from that.

Listen to it at link~

It’s ironic that Steele insisted he was “not backing down,” because directly following Steele’s original statement regarding primary challenges, the RNC walked back his statement in a message to Politico’s Ben Smith, insisting it “has no interest in getting involved in primaries.”

[madrchsod]

1. good ....we`ll take the moderate republicans

and steele..oops..limpballs can have the rest

[louis-t]

2. All that is going on in the world and repugs

spend their time punishing each other. They are sick people.

[liberalhistorian]

3. LOL. Damn, these people just keep

right on handing it to us on a silver platter, don't they? Keep it up, I say! :rofl: :rofl:

[Rashel]

4. Big Daddy told him to say that. Sucks to be run by a radio show.

[BOSSHOG]

5. Apparently Steele and his boss limbaugh are on the same page

on this issue. Lockstep on message or your outta here.

[Cha]

14. I wonder if Collins, Snowe,

and Spector are shaking in their boots? :scared: :scared: :scared:

Those are the three are they not?

[northernlights]

18. Yup

And within 1 week of the original threat, Collins & Snowe started running tv ads about how they supported a bill to provide health insurance for 11 million uninsured children.

They wasted no time spending goooop money defending themselves from...gooop! :rofl:

[Cha]

19. Ohh, enlightening!

Thanks, northernlight~

[LynneSin]

6. Good - let's hope Bunning retires so we can have our 60 senators

:woohoo:

[Occam Bandage]

7. What is it with party leaders sticking their feet in their mouths with regards to tables?

[Cha]

15. "At the end of the day"..

that's all they really have.

[SpiralHawk]

8. Totally Totalitarian

Why do Republicon Homelanders HATE the Land of the Free?

[county worker]

9. Some smart Republican is going to come along in the mold of Eisenhower or

Ford and tell the wing nuts to stick it. That person will become the leader of the party. No more think tanks, no more noise machine no more of what they became for the last 8 years.

The two things that made it for the repubs was Reagan Democrats and the Contract on America. They can still get some Reagan Democrat types if they lost the extreme right and talk radio. They have to rebuild their base and not on freepers and fundies.

[Cha]

16. Someone who can

build a Foundation for them without the all the gimmicks that just amount to a streaming pile of bull manure.

Can't rely on trickery anymore..that would be some trick for the gop.

[county worker]

20. I'm hoping it is a long way off.

[Dr Fate]

10. More direct orders from his "leader", Rush Limbaugh, no doubt. n/t

n/t

[AyanEva]

11. I feel like I need to send an email to Specter

Just to thank him and show a bit of support, if only to spite Michael Steele.

[Cha]

12. Oh boo hoo..he backed down to rush limpbaughs

but will punish moderate Republicans.

When I first read this ..I thought he was lying about Obama Dems "punishing republicans who voted against the recovery plan".

I think we have the Axis of Stupidity..starring, steele, rush, and jindal.

[Urban Prairie]

13. Hard to back down, when your head is squeezed between Rush's asscheeks n/t

[Cha]

17. Hard to back down and hard

to think straight when the oxygen can't flow to the brain.