I would have had a hard time believing this if I hadn't heard it. Mike Steele is an obvious dope, and he proves it here.
It's a story from NPR this morning, and I listened to it on my way to work. Steve Inskeep is interviewing Michael Steele about health care, and it's obvious that Steele doesn't understand the leading health care reform proposal, but he knows he doesn't like it.
Among other things, Inskeep pins him down on the clear contradiction between his steadfast opposition to a public option and his demagogic “Old People's Bill of Rights” and its fervent demand that we keep our hands off Medicare.
Probably my favorite part of it, though, was when Steele gets totally irate at having his position described as “nuanced”.
INSKEEP: Mr. Chairman, I respect that you feel that I'm doing a dance here. I just want you to know that as a citizen, I'm a little confused by the positions you take because you're giving me a very nice nuanced position here.
Mr. STEELE: It's not nice and nuanced. I'm being very clear.
INSKEEP: You're giving me, nevertheless, a nuanced position, a careful…
Mr. STEELE: What's nuanced? What don't you understand?
INSKEEP: What nuance means is you're not doing it absolutely black and white. You're saying you recognize the government has a role to play here, but when you…
Mr. STEELE: Wait a minute. But that is the – is that a…
INSKEEP: …and your party…
Mr. STEELE: …not reality?
Finally, Steve has to tell him that “nuanced” isn't a bad thing.
INSKEEP: I'm not saying nuanced is a bad thing, sir.
Mr. STEELE: I'm being very clear. I want to have an open debate. I want to put ideas out there. I want the people to understand what this is going to look like when it's all said and done. And I'm not – you know, seriously, I'm not trying to be nuanced. I'm not trying to be cute. I'm trying to be very clear. I'm not saying the government doesn't have a role to play here. It does. It's managing a Medicare program, so it has a role to play.
INSKEEP: Maybe we're getting hung up on the word nuance. Maybe I should say complicated. Do you find it challenging to get into this complicated debate and explain things to people in a way that it's honest to the facts and still very clear and doesn't just kind of scare people with soundbites?
This was great work. You really should listen to the whole thing.
The fear factor always works, especially when the demos wobble around on the message like they have been doing with it. What’s worse is that large swaths of the American people believe them
He told Fox news on Tuesday that a Veterans Affairs manual is “encouraging them [veterans] to commit suicide.” Nuance .
The defeat of health care reform is being made possible the old fashioned American way ..it is being bought lobbied away before our eyes.All of it supplemented by lies ,wobbly Blue Dogs ,distortions and stalled forward momentum caused by Obama’s strange quest for bi-partisan support.