GOP candidate: Republican "R" is a "scarlet letter"

Republican Senatorial candidate Michael Steele (currently lieutenant governor of Maryland) called his party affiliation "an impediment...a hurdle I have to overcome...a scarlet letter" and said he'd "probably not" want Bush to campaign for him. He also said the GOP-controlled Congress should "just shut up and get something done."

We like this guy. If we were residents of Maryland, we might be tempted to vote for him. Except for that scarlet letter.

Steele also said the Iraq war "didn't work" and "we didn't prepare for the peace," that the response to Hurricane Katrina was "a monumental failure of government," and that "there's a palpable frustration right now in the country."

Is this guy sure he's a Republican?

Of Republicans who control Congress, Steele said: "We've lost our way, we've gone to the well and we drank the water, and we shouldn't have."

Whoa. Is this guy sure he wants to get elected?

Steele is the second Republican in a week to suggest that GOP candidates distance themselves from Bush as the party tries to hold onto the House and Senate. Last week, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota told reporters: "If I were running in the state this year, you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda."

No, it doesn't seem especially canny to embrace a president whose agenda is to make everything FUBAR. We're heartened to see some Republicans starting to recognize that.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/26/republicans.bush.ap/index.html

UPDATE: Today Michael Steele said Bush is his "homeboy" and claimed to have been joking when he described his Republican affiliation as a scarlet letter. He also said, "If the president wanted to come and help me in Maryland, he is more than welcome, because I'm not going to turn my back on a friend. I'm not gonna do that."

Funny how fast shit changes direction when it hits the fan.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060726/ap_on_el_se/republicans_
bush;_ylt=Apma.dmo5izGUwfcwIzIarSs0NUE;
_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM