Democrats are trying to portray Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele in his campaign for U.S. Senate as a close ally of President Bush, part of “the Bush-Steele machine,” as Rep. Ben Cardin, D-3rd, put it.
Democratic Party operatives crank out anti-Steele press releases with headlines such as “Steele?s Bush Republican Cronies Block Gas Gouging Investigation” and “Steele?s Right Wing Weekend,” highlighting a Nashville, Tenn., fundraising event with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, of Tennessee, and Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum, of Pennsylvania.
But while Steele may be embracing Bush and Senate conservatives in private fundraising, the likely GOP nominee for Senate also distanced himself from key Bush policies in an Examiner interview published today.
“We could have done a little better with No Child Left Behind,” and the foreign takeover of port operations. He was also critical of the strategy in the Iraq war, and the lack of a plan to win the peace and stabilize the country.
Steele concedes that the president is unpopular in Maryland ? two-thirds of state voters disapproved of Bush?s job performance in an April poll ? but he doesn?t think that will hurt his race for Senate.
“Everybody knows I?m a Republican,” Steele told The Examiner. “I was state party chairman, for goodness sake.”
With Steele almost certain to be the Republican nominee, the potential
Democratic challengers direct their fire at Steele. Cardin challenged him to a debate on health care after Steele said on Fox News? “Hannity & Colmes” show that a real debate on issues such as health care was needed.
But Steele said, “Ben Cardin needs to worry about Kweisi Mfume. He should not presume to be the nominee of his party. … So I don?t engage Ben Cardin. Whatever Ben Cardin says about a Bush-Steele agenda, we?ll talk about that in September if he?s the nominee.”
Cardin can?t wait.
“What George Bush says is that he?s campaigning for people who agree with his agenda,” Cardin told The Examiner. “And Michael Steele has done nothing to dissuade us that?s he doing anything other than supporting the Bush agenda.”
Steele is running “because Dick Cheney and Karl Rove asked him to,” Cardin said.
