With the furor over the inadvertent public airing of RNC Chairman Michael Steele's attack on President Obama growing, Chairman Steele is scrambling to do damage-control.
After an amateur video from a closed-to-the-media event surfaced that had Steele saying of the war in Afghanistan:
"Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."... you know that's the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan? All right, because everyone who has tried, over a thousand years of history, has failed. And there are reasons for that. There are other ways to engage in Afghanistan."
... RNC spokesman Doug Heye tried to downplay the remarks, saying that Steele did not, "say or suggest that (a) we shouldn't be there, (b) we can't win or (c) he didn't support the surge." But Steele quite clearly did, so Steele has now come out with a statement of his own:
During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama made clear his belief that we should not fight in Iraq, but instead concentrate on Afghanistan. Now, as President, he has indeed shifted his focus to this region. That means this is his strategy. And, for the sake of the security of the free world, our country must give our troops the support necessary to win this war.
“As we have learned throughout history, winning a war in Afghanistan is a difficult task. We must also remember that after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, it is also a necessary one. That is why I supported the decision to increase our troop force and, like the entire United States Senate, I support General Petraeus’ confirmation. The stakes are too high for us to accept anything but success in Afghanistan.
... which does absolutely nothing to address what Steele did say when he thought his words would never be made public.
And of course he doesn't address the fact that as the head of the Republican Party, he blatantly and stupidly lied about the President, and about when, why and how the war in Afghanistan began.