GOP’s Steele is more in tune with the times than his critics

GOP’s Steele is more in tune with the times than his critics

The Anniston (Ala.) Star, on the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele: It’s been a rough ride the last few weeks for the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

He’s had any number of dustups with rivals, caught grief from both ends of his party and has been the subject of the late-night television jokesters.

And he kept it up when he gave an interview recently to GQ magazine.

First, he stumbled through the subject of abortion, seeming to indicate that it was ultimately an individual’s choice, then backtracked by saying it should be up to the individual states. Then, after the interview, he clarified that he was solidly pro-life.

He then veered into the minefield of the subject of homosexuality.

Is it, Steele was asked, a matter of choice or of nature? Nature, he seemed to say, adding, “I think that there’s a whole lot that goes into the makeup of an individual that you just can’t simply say, oh, like, ’Tomorrow morning I’m going to stop being gay.’ It’s like saying, ’Tomorrow morning I’m going to stop being black.”’

That was the wrong thing to say to a party that seems dead-set on writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution and continuing a policy of discrimination in the armed forces.

The followers of the de facto leader of the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, are sharpening their knives. But the truth is that Steele’s take on the issue of gays in America is in tune with the times.